Wood power poles are commonly used for supporting power lines. Many thousands of wood power line poles crisscross the country and interconnect electrical power sources with users of electrical power. The process of installing power poles is costly and the poles are treated with preservatives to retard deterioration of the wood as occurs when exposed to all kinds of weather conditions including rotting which rapidly occurs to the portion of the pole that is embedded in the ground.
A power pole is typically provided with a cross arm or mast suitably braced for carrying multiple power lines in spaced parallel relation. Also, electrical boxes, cable television boxes, transformers and the like are often attached to the pole. All of these various paraphernalia require that holes and/or flat spots be provided on the pole. Also, the poles installed along a designated stretch are cut to the same length and are provided with "roofs" that are all placed in alignment when installed. Often holes are drilled in the lower end portion of the pole to be embedded underground to enhance treating the pole with a wood preservative to extend the life of the pole.
All such flats, roofs, holes, and other shaping of the pole is referred to as framing. The framing precedes treatment, e.g., with a wood preservative so that all exposed surface areas of the pole are treated. As will be appreciated, the various shapes provided on the pole must be precisely located, e.g., relative to the roof tops so that with the roof tops aligned, the various flats, holes, etc. are properly located on the pole. Still further, poles are often not precisely straight, i.e., they may have a slight bow of several inches over a hundred foot length.
Prior to this invention pole framing has been primarily accomplished manually. A pair of spaced apart elongated supports were provided to support the posts at each end. These supports allowed the post to roll so that the bow of the pole drapes down. Thus, the framer knew that the top side of the laterally supported pole would be the front side of the pole when installed. The framer thus simply proceeded to measure and cut or plane or drill as needed to frame the pole.
The process of framing is tedious, time consuming and expensive, and is one of the major cost components of a pole made ready for installation as a power pole. It is understood that one attempt was made to automate the framing procedure. A pole was mounted on supports and a motorized tool carrier traveled along the pole length and in the process performed the shaping operations. It saved little in cost of framing and was short lived. Nothing more about this attempt at automation is known.